CHRIS VELAN’S NEW LP, SONGS ABOUT SONGS, OUT MAY 19, 2023
WATCH / SHARE “STICKY NOTES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “STICKY NOTES” HERE
PRE-ORDER SONGS ABOUT SONGS HERE
Photo Credit : Matt Charland // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
As a songwriter, musician, and producer hailing from Montreal, Chris Velan has made a name for himself by deftly weaving together a wide variety of musical genres, infusing each song with his signature emotional intensity. But the secret to Velan's success goes far beyond his technical abilities or his ear for catchy hooks - it's his ability to tap into something raw and authentic that speaks to the shared human experience.
His music - and search for inspiration and truth - has brought him to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Haiti and back. He has toured throughout North America with festival performances at The Lincoln Center, Sundance Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Osheaga, among many others.
Velan’s latest album, Songs About Songs, out on May 19th, is a testament to his enduring curiosity and restless creativity. The album is an upbeat and heart-forward exploration of the insecurities and joys of finding new love, getting older and starting a family. It’s a fitting antidote for the times, shot through with his honed songwriting chops, wit, insight, and compassion.
In keeping with the self-referential title, Songs About Songs, Chris Velan’s lead-off single takes on as its vehicle the eponymous and everyday item, the stick note.
On “Sticky Notes” Velan explains, “At the time, my partner and I were new in our relationship and living together in the radical confinement of the pandemic. For some reason, we started using sticky notes to deliver hidden messages to each other that we would end up finding in the most unexpected places and at unexpected times. The escalation became a bit ridiculous. I’m still discovering them. But there was something about the effort we made to share how we were feeling about each other - with words of encouragement, solace, love, hilarity, silliness - that became important in how our relationship deepened.
“The song is a reminder to remember; A scribbled prompt on a square piece of neon pink paper to treat yourself and those important to you with care; a nudge to not hold back in sharing what’s real in your heart. Nothing is too small or big. No time is bad.”
WATCH / SHARE “STICKY NOTES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “STICKY NOTES” HERE
MORE ABOUT SONGS ABOUT SONGS
On his eighth and latest studio release, Songs About Songs, Velan explains that “songwriting for me has also been an attempt to make sense of the world around me and my place in it. But the relationship between myself and the songs is always nebulous and fraught.
“They’re always on the verge of running away, like wild animals, wary of my proximity. I don’t know where they come from or how to make them do what I want. They have a mind of their own and resist my effort to make them bend, like a piece of stubborn metal that won’t take the shape I want, despite all my heating and hammering. It’s exhausting, humbling work.
“But in the end, if you stick with it and are lucky, something comes out that you stand behind as something you made. Sort of. Because it doesn’t resemble what you intended and you’re left with a nagging doubt that it even came from you or that it’s yours to claim in the first place.
And when you’re asked to explain what the song means, you’re twice-screwed because not only is your answer inadequate, you’re painfully aware that the song you wrote to speak for itself is staying tight-lipped. So now even you aren’t let in on the secret. None of this is meant to absolve me of any responsibility for the products of my efforts. I stand behind them all, even the ones that fall short of whatever mark I set for them. No, friend, I jump into this fool’s errand time and time again, knowing what I’m getting myself into. It’s a compulsion.
So as far as I can tell, these songs are about the insecurities and joy of finding new love, starting a family, getting older and facing irrelevance. They’re preoccupied with relinquishing the fantasy of one’s own exceptionalism; of learning how to forgive ourselves for not being extraordinary, for not loving perfectly or living perfectly; or not ending up where they thought we would. They want to get better at naming and being thankful for the simple beauty of what is available at the moment; to make a practice of encouraging our own wonder.
MORE ABOUT CHRIS VELAN
At the heart of Velan’s sound lies a sense of empathy and emotional intelligence that is all too rare in the modern musical landscape. His music is a journey through the various worlds and cultures that have shaped him. Musically and lyrically, he has been recognized for his smartly crafted singer-songwriter pop and indie folk that trades in songs that both comfort and challenge. Drawing on a diverse musical DNA that includes West African desert blues, highlife, reggae, Americana and beyond, Velan has forged a sound that is uniquely his own, one that is universally resonant while remaining deeply personal and intimate. It's the kind of music that makes you feel seen and understood, even as it expands your own horizons.
Velan’s artistic journey has been one of constant evolution and creative output, constantly exploring new sounds and influences from around the world. He’s earned the respect of fans, peers, and industry for the consistent strength of his body of work, his abilities as a performer, and his versatility as a collaborator. His is a career built on collaboration and community, a testament to the power of music to bring people together and break down barriers.
Velan is proof that sometimes, the most unexpected paths can lead to the greatest destinations. Following his early, formative experiences playing in bands, including the short-lived but well-loved reggae outfit, Equalizer, Velan went on to leave a budding career in law to pursue his own solo musical path. That defining decision was influenced in no small part by his experience as the music producer for the award-winning documentary, “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars” about the lives, and resilience, of a musical group of refugee musicians in West Africa. Velan’s experience with the project, and on the two internationally acclaimed albums he subsequently produced for the band, was transformative and helped to shape his own musical vision.
Since then, Velan has made his mark with a catalogue that includes seven albums and numerous appearances as a musical contributor and producer on others, earning accolades along the way. The single, “un-American Gothic” from his record, Glow (2016), landed on CBC Radio 2’s Top 100 Songs List for that year.
His follow-up album, Amateur Hour saw its single, “All-Time Record”, charting high on CBC Radio 3’s Top 30 Songs of the Week. Velan followed the success of his work with Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars to produce Haitian music collective, Lakou Mizik, on their debut, award-winning release, “Wa Di Yo”.
In the downtime of the pandemic, he kept busy collaborating with renowned Mauritanian-Senegalese artist, Daby Touré, on a duo project and launching an EP, Emissaire Vol. 1 to an enthusiastic critical response that has both artists setting eyes on more touring and recording. Velan also released his first French single, ”Ma Baleine”, which found itself in regular rotation on satellite radio.
SONGS ABOUT SONGS TRACKLIST
01 Eva
02 Sticky Notes
03 City Of Fur
04 Enough To Go On
05 Love With A Capital L
06 Cameo
07 The Future
08 Keeper Of The Bees
09 Plagiarize
10 Songs About Songs